It is difficult to miss the elegant mausoleum recently erected by Gregory Nelson Ballentine. Just drive through the main entrance and look to your right, and there it is.

The first mausoleum inside the grounds.

And it is a beauty. Narrow but substantial, the structure occupies a prime six-plot space coped in the same smooth granite of which the small mausoleum itself is constructed.

On the side of the building which faces the entrance, a name and beginning date -- with requisite dash -- is carved:

BALLENTINE

GREGORY NELSON

1958 -

Beneath the name of the man whose earthly remains will someday be entombed there is engraved a cryptic sentiment often seen in old English cemeteries:

Remember man as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now so must you be, remember man that you must die.

The double doors are of burnished bronze with a design incorporating the owner's initial "B."

Ballentine has chosen the lower compartment to someday house his own casket. There is space for a second interment above but so far, no future occupant has been specified.

Being possessed of a droll -- even impish -- sense of humor, the genial Ballentine enjoys decorating the empty space in his someday-tomb.

Last October, if one peered inside, a startle was in store. For on the "top shelf" rested a life-sized replica of a mostly-decomposed human skeleton.

The "corpse" is still parked there. On the face is a most convincing death-grimace. Upon closer scrutiny, those who enjoy black humor will see it's all very tongue-in-cheek.

Later the skeletal "remains" were draped coyly in a voluminous Confederate flag.

In January we arranged a meeting with the creative and courteous Ballentine, who met us at his mausoleum for a photo shoot. It was a cold day; we later repaired to the nearby Lizard's Thicket for coffee and a chat.

We wanted to know what had prompted Ballentine, a former software developer for SCE&G and still a relatively young man, to plan for and purchase his mausoleum.

Turns out that in 2002, during the course of treatment for a deviated septum, then forty-four-year-old Ballentine's doctors discovered a malignant tumor in his sinuses.

What followed was the stark reality of two surgeries and as much radiation as Ballentine's body will ever be able to withstand. Ballentine feared he was done for.

"I didn't think I had thirty more years," he says.

But five years later -- during which time his survival rate was estimated at twenty percent -- Ballentine received the welcome news that he was at last free of cancer and its threat.

When it comes to burial grounds he prefers cemeteries, where headstones and other higher-profile monuments are allowed, to memorial parks featuring mostly flat bronze plaque-like grave markers.

"I like monuments. I love monuments. I'd like to be remembered," he revealed.

Having already purchased the prime Elmwood plot with space for six graves, Ballentine decided to develop his real estate.

The idea of placing a mausoleum on the plot didn't occur to him at first. But, with help and guidance from Elmwood's own Susie Baier, the decision to choose a genuine "statement piece" emerged.

With Baier's assistance, Ballentine came up with a design for his mausoleum. In due time the order was placed.

So it was that last June, a truck arrived in Columbia bearing the burden of Gregory Nelson Ballentine's tomb. Ruts caused by the complicated and heavy transport can still be seen in the blacktop of Elmwood's entrance.

"It's not an angel," says Ballentine. "Think the opposite of an angel."

Ah. The Grim Reaper. Now that will be a statement piece to write home about.

And when the time comes that a replica of the Memento Mori decorates the courtyard of Gregory Nelson Ballentine's exquisitely-crafted crypt, you may rest assured you will read about it here on Examiner.

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Jennifer Weber is a taphophile: One who enjoys wandering amongst the tombs. And when she wanders a cemetery, she always takes her camera. Her original photograph of the Thomas N. Theus monument at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, graced the cover of American Cemetery magazine in November, 2010, while her article and more photos were featured within. She is an active contributor to Find A Grave and maintains two blogs: I'm Having A Thought Here (jennyweber dot com) and A Route Of Evanescence, a Tumblr blog devoted primarily to her cemetery photography. She has been married to Greg since 1979. They have four adult children and three grandchildren.